Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all it combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. In this partnership all men have equal rights; but not to equal things.

Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is of no mean force in the government of mankind.

Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.

No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.

Man acts from adequate motives relative to his interest, and not on metaphysical speculations.

The yielding of the weak is the concession to fear.

The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is vanity; the rest is crime.